Entries in 2018 Pro Chess League (12)
Pro Chess League All-Stars on Saturday
Chess.com is doing their best to have a spectator-friendly next few days: Karjakin-Duda tomorrow (Thursday), Giri-Mamedyarov on Friday, and then on Saturday an all-star event with Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and other players whose performance in the last season of the Pro Chess League won them a spot. More about the event here, and the matches for Thursday and Friday have been mentioned multiple times on this blog, including here.
Armenia Wins Pro Chess League Crown
The final match of the 2018 Pro Chess League came down to the wire - and then some - on the way to the Armenia Eagles defeated the Chengdu Pandas. The match, held this past Sunday in San Francisco, finished in an 8-8 tie, so it was on to overtime. The way that worked is like this: the fourth boards would play, with the winner going on to play the third board. In case of a draw, both players get eliminated, and the next board up for each side would play. (Unless, obviously, it's a draw on first board. In that case, they play again with colors reversed.) The Chinese fourth board won, but then lost to Armenia's third board. Then the third boards drew and eliminated each other; likewise the second boards. Then the first boards drew their first game and the second one too, before at long last Zaven Andriasian defeated Wang Yue to give the outrated Armenias the title.
Pro Chess League Final, Coming Up
The grand finale of the 2018 Pro Chess League starts in just five minutes, at 5 p.m. local time in San Francisco, CA. The finalists are the favored Chengdu Pandas, who will take on the Armenia Eagles. You can watch on Chess.com or on Twitch.tv.
Pro Chess League Playoffs
We haven't been keeping up with the Pro Chess League playoffs the past couple of weeks either, as the Candidates sucked all the oxygen out of the room, but they're underway and down to the final four. While it has been an internet competition, the final four will be a two-day event with the four teams meeting in person in San Francisco April 7 & 8 - more info about that, here.
Pro Chess League: The Playoffs are Next
In case you haven't been following the Wednesday extravaganzas comprising the 2018 season of the Pro Chess League, yesterday's finished the regular season. (There are more Wednesdays to come, for the playoffs.) The top four teams from each division survived to the playoff stage, the next two are out but automatically qualified for the next season, and the bottom two must requalify next year. Full standings here.
The shockers: Magnus Carlsen's Norway Gnomes failed to qualify, despite his excellent performance all season; while last year's runners-up, the Montreal ChessBrahs, not only failed to qualify for the playoffs, but must qualify to rejoin the league next year.
Tomorrow is *NOT* Another PRO Chess League Day
If it's a Wednesday early in the year, then it's probably a PRO Chess League day - all day long. Probably and usually, but not this week; the action will be pushed back to "Super Saturday".
For those who haven't been following it, it's a worldwide league competition with short rapid (15'+2") time controls. Many of the world's best are on teams and participate regularly, including Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, and the list goes on and on. Teams are divided up into geographical regions, and attempt to qualify from those regions into the playoffs. The season is still in the qualification stage.
Part of the fun is that lower-rated players (sometimes that means "a strong GM who's not quite Grand Chess Tour caliber", and sometimes it means "a strong club player") face off against the world's super-elite, and occasionally they draw blood. Here are two examples from last week's action.
Pro Chess League, Week 6 Underway
It has been going all day, but there are still hours of play left. (And you can access the earlier broadcast on Twitch.tv, if you're so inclined.) The live broadcast can be found several places, including the official site.
Pro Chess League, Round 5 Underway
Those of you with a little free time and in search of chess entertainment may wish to tune into this week's Pro Chess League action. It's a worldwide league and the action is staggered into four sessions over the course of the day. The first session is underway, and Viswanathan Anand is making his league debut as I write this.